consumption

Filip

Location

Filip's home 1000 Brussels
Belgium
50° 50' 48.66" N, 4° 20' 52.7172" E
BE
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Level of activity: 

Filip grew up in Veerle, a village in Belgium. Through Veerle runs a river, Grote Laak and when Filip was a child, the river was so polluted that the kids of the town were forbidden to play anywhere near it. This always struck Filip as strange. Rivers are supposed to be clean, a place for fun. The river had a great impact on him, even though he never touched it as a child.
 

Tom's work

Level of activity: 

Five years ago Tom started up his organic farm Het Open Veld in Leuven. He grows over 60 types of vegetables and fruits on his two hectares. He also has beautiful cherry trees, sheep for grazing and bees. The best part is that the farm is at the border of the city of Leuven, so the food production takes place very close to the people who eat the food- and it is organic, seasonal and ethically sound.
 

Q: How do you deal with little insects that like to eat herbs in pots?
I am not so experienced with food grown in pots, healthy soil is very important, and you can spray a mild soap and water mix on the leaves. It doesn't harm the plants but the bugs don't like it.

Q: How do you keep your vegetables and fruits from going bad?
Actually, a good way is to keep the food in soil, even apples. If you have a balcony or some place you can have a pot of soil, but then you have to keep it safe from mice and other animals. I also recently heard that storing for instance carrots vertically lengthens their shelf-life, as vegetables struggle to get into their natural position as they were in the ground, and using the extra energy to try to straighten up makes them go bad sooner, but I haven't had experience with that yet.

Q: When you buy meat, where do you go?
I don't eat meat very often, mostly when I go out for dinner. If I buy meat for cooking at home, I sometimes go to the organic meat stand at the Friday market in Leuven centre. Also, the man who sells goat cheese there sometimes has goat meat, from goats that were getting old. And then there is the Veeakker, a sustainable meat shop. There you can buy meat from animals that grazed on a protected land close by.

Q: Where do you get your clothes and other things?
1. There is a great hemp clothes shop Hempmade in Leuven
2. I buy my organic cotton underwear at C&A
3. Spit is a local second hand shop with all kinds of things
4. For my house that I am rebuilding, I got many things from the Internet site Kapaza

Tom's home

Tom bought a 2-floor house from 1875 in the fall of 2010. The house was in a bad condition, missing windows, leaking roof, damp, and the previous owners had burned their heating fire directly on the ground.
To Tom this was a positive thing. He could then renovate the house without having to throw away useful but unwanted items.
Less than a year later his home is taking shape and he has made a bunch of ecological decisions for it.

Tom Troonbeeckx

Location

Leuven
Belgium
50° 52' 39.2556" N, 4° 42' 15.5808" E
BE
keywords: 

Tom grew up in several small towns around Leuven with his mother and brother. He was always interested in plants and gardening, and it was his role in the family to take care of the plants and vegetables. Tom didn't however imagine farming as a successful profession, as a farmer's incomes is not only determined by the weather but also by wholesalers and food chains. Despite having enjoyed working as a social worker for a while, his heart kept bringing him back to the fields.

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